The European Union’s pilates policy towards migrants is still alive. For years, many summits, working lunches and rivers of words, to then continue to leave the Member States to their fate, especially those at the forefront like Italy and Greece. And so, not to forget, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, underlined in Brussels, during the college of commissioners on February 8, the importance of guiding the discussions of the Heads of State or Government towards “specific objectives” , warning against falling into the “trap” of focusing exclusively on the approximately 330,000 irregular crossings of the EU’s external borders registered in 2022, among other things, a record since 2016. That is, according to von der Leyen, the “most applicants of asylum” in the EU “do not need international protection” and therefore Member States should focus on increasing the return of those who do not have the right to stay, since in the Union only a fifth of those whose asylum application is refused are then actually repatriated. Therefore, she added, applicable asylum rules must be followed “scrupulously” to safeguard the system. Furthermore, people who have failed to obtain refugee status must be “efficiently” repatriated to their home countries.
In other words, dear Member States, get to work. And so, instead of building bridges, Brussels builds walls. It’s too high. The real hurdle to be overcome is the need to reform the Dublin Regulation, which came into force in 1997 and is now in its third version, widely criticised. It is the document that establishes, among other things, that the country of first arrival of the migrants must be in charge of their asylum applications, a mechanism that, according to many, places excessive responsibilities on some countries, such as Italy and Greece, which, due to their geographical position, represent the obligatory gateway for hundreds of thousands of people every year. However, according to the President of the European Commission, for an efficient management of migration flows it is of “fundamental importance” to ensure that the EU co-legislators, the Council and Parliament, adopt “all the elements of the European pact on migration and asylum by end of this Commission’s term”, that is, in the first months of 2024.
«The landings are multiplying, not increasing – said the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini – Now we need a strong and fast intervention, we need an intervention to protect the borders. If, on the other hand, Europe deals with rented wombs, refrigerators and greenhouses…». The United Nations Human Rights Council itself “slapped” the European Union. After three years of investigation and “overwhelming evidence”, in a report, the UN body, on people stranded in Libya, while trying to reach Europe, they are systematically tortured and forced into sexual slavery. The report criticizes the European Union for “support provided to the Libyan coastguard in terms of removals, pushbacks and interceptions”. “We are not saying that the EU and its member states committed these crimes. The issue is that the support given helped and favored the commission of crimes”, said one of the members of the commission, Chaloka Beyani.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
